


Nothing satisfies me like a punch in the face

by HopeSilverheart



Series: Loving Em at 2AM [48]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: (he deserved it), Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Maia Roberts, Betrayal, Developing Relationship, Drinking, Humour, Jace Wayland Being a Little Shit, M/M, Maia Roberts won't take any shit, Pack Support, Post-Break Up, Punching, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:36:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25006282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeSilverheart/pseuds/HopeSilverheart
Summary: Apparently, the universe had decided that it was ‘screw with Maia’ month. Not only had her boyfriend broken up with her, he hadn’t even given her a straight explanation as to why. Not only had her heart been shattered into a million pieces, the one person she wanted to talk to wasn’t around. Not only did she have to deal with the fact that Simon no longer loved her, she now apparently also had to deal with the fact that he loved someone else.Because right there, sitting at the bar a few feet away from her, were Jace and Simon, laughing and holding hands and looking like they were the only people in the world. It made Maia sick.Or: Maia's ex shows up with his new partner a week after their partner, and she's not about to let them make her feel guilty about her emotions.
Relationships: Simon Lewis/Jace Wayland, past Simon Lewis/Maia Roberts
Series: Loving Em at 2AM [48]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764400
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	Nothing satisfies me like a punch in the face

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatnerdemryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdemryn/gifts).



Maia hated week-end shifts.

Ever since she had started working at the Hunter’s Moon, she had done everything in her power to avoid them. So when she had specifically asked her boss to put her on the Saturday roster, everyone knew something was wrong, and everyone had warned the patrons not to get on her nerves.

None of them knew _why_ she was in such a foul mood, obviously, or why she was so desperate to lose herself in her job, but it was none of their business and they were fully aware of that. They left her alone, and that suited her just fine. All she needed were a few hours to herself, letting the mixing and the alcohol and the heavy bar atmosphere take over and relieve her of the intrusive thoughts that had been trying to take over her mind.

But of course, things could never go the way she wanted them to. Apparently, the universe had decided that it was ‘ _screw with Maia_ ’ month. Not only had her boyfriend broken up with her, he hadn’t even given her a straight explanation as to why. Not only had her heart been shattered into a million pieces, the one person she wanted to talk to wasn’t around. Not only did she have to deal with the fact that Simon no longer loved her, she now apparently also had to deal with the fact that he loved _someone else_.

Because right there, sitting at the bar a few feet away from her, were Jace and Simon, laughing and holding hands and looking like they were the only people in the world. It made Maia sick.

(It made Maia jealous.)

She hadn’t seen them come in, which meant either someone at the bar had caught onto the fact that she was no longer dating Simon, or she had been even more lost in her thoughts than she had thought she was. Either way, they were here now, and so was Maia. For a second, she wondered if it would be illegal to poison someone whilst she was working.

The only question was which one she wanted gone most: Simon, who had gotten together with someone less than a week after their break-up and had possible been cheating on her, or Jace, whom she had started to think of as a friend but clearly didn’t apply the friend-code to himself. She clenched her fist around the tumbler in her hands and forced a smile onto her face as the man in front of her asked if she was alright.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said as warmly as she could. There was no way she was going to let Simon and Jace ruin her pristine reputation with her patrons. She had always been an admirable bartender, and that wasn’t about to change now.

Seconds later, she was spinning around and staring at the array of alcoholic beverages in front of her. If she wasn’t on the clock, she would have already grabbed and downed at least one of them – maybe two, realistically three. But she couldn’t do that. All she could do was bite down the anger she felt simmering in her chest, shove away the darkness that was creeping at the edge of her thoughts, and take the boys’ orders as though it didn’t make her want to scream.

She approached them slowly, and she didn’t know whether she was glad or enraged that they only noticed her once she was right in front of them. Either way, she plastered on one of her bright but sharp smiles and propped her elbows on the counter, hoping she looked even a fraction more confident than she felt.

“Hello boys,” she grinned. “Didn’t expect to see you here tonight. What can I get you?”

“Maia,” Simon breathed out, his eyes widening comically. He glanced between her and Jace for a few seconds, and at least he had the decency to look sheepish, if not apologetic. “I didn’t know you would be working here tonight. You always told me that you hated-”

“Working week-ends?” she completed for him, shrugging nonchalantly. “I do. However, I’ve been going through some stuff recently, not that you can relate, and work is as good a distraction as any. Believe me, I would rather be somewhere else, especially now that I know _you’re_ here, but we can’t always get what we want. What you can get is one of the best drinks in New York City, so do you want one or not?”

“I’ll have a beer,” Jace cut in, clearly sensing the tension. He didn’t meet Maia’s eyes, and she wanted nothing more than to bash his head onto the bar to see if it could knock some sense and empathy into that mind of his. “Whatever’s best.”

“Of course,” Maia said saccharine-sweetly. “Simon, gin and tonic for you? Or did your taste in alcohol change at the same time as your taste in partners? Not that I can blame you, I suppose blonds do have their charms, especially this one.”

She winked at Jace, internally smirking at the way he gulped, clearly nervous about what she was going to say next. Interesting, really, that he hadn’t told Simon about their little one-night-stand yet. It gave her so much blackmail potential, as well as endless sources of teasing once Simon found out.

“Still a gin and tonic, Maia,” Simon said. Maia’s gaze snapped back to him and she nodded, shooting them one last glance before turning away to find their drinks.

She clenched her jaw as she worked, ignoring her co-worker’s concerned gaze and quiet inquiry as to whether or not she wanted him to take over this order for her. She refused, of course, because the last thing she had left was her dignity and she refused to put it in jeopardy over a stupid date between her ex and a man she thought was her friend.

“Tell me if you change your mind,” he shrugged, going back to their other patrons. Maia saw him shoot a warning glance in Simon’s direction, which was completely unnecessary but extremely appreciated.

By the time she turned back towards the two men, she was feeling a lot more confident and a lot less off-kilter. Even if she wasn’t okay with whatever was going on between the two of them, she didn’t have to show them how much it was hurting her. And she definitely didn’t have to pull out her usual customer charms, because neither of them deserved that, not when they were sitting there on a _date_ as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Your drinks,” she said, slamming their glasses down on the counter and not bothering to wipe down the liquid that overflowed. If it bothered them, they could deal with it themselves, just as she was dealing with her issues. “Hope you enjoy them as much as you enjoy your evening together. Have a fantastic date.”

She smiled one last time before turning around, but a hand grabbed onto her wrist and stopped her from leaving them behind. Her smile transformed into a grimace, and a growl slipped past her lips as she swirled back towards the pair. Her anger only intensified when she realised that the hand belonged not to Simon, as she had assumed, but to Jace.

She would have been pissed about her ex-boyfriend touching her, but _Jace_ , Jace who had slept with her once, treated her like a friend, only to go behind her back and woo her boyfriend away from her? He could keep his dirty, traitor paws to himself. She wrenched herself out of his grasp and snarled in his direction. She couldn’t see herself but, if Jace’s flinch was anything to go by, her eyes had probably just flashed a dangerous shade of green.

“Woah, steady there,” the blond said, raising his hands up innocently. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“First of all, I’m not your pet dog, so don’t tell me to _steady there_ , Jonathan,” Maia hissed. “And secondly, you didn’t startle me, I’m just not terribly fond of you at the moment and would rather stay as far away from you as physically possible whilst you’re in the bar I work at, on a date with my ex.”

“Look, we told you we didn’t think you would be here,” Simon interrupted placatingly, looking around the bar nervously. He had clearly realised that they weren’t as welcome here as they usually were. “And I swear I wouldn’t have suggested the Hunter’s Moon if I had known. You have to know we wouldn’t be that cruel, Maia…”

“See, a day ago, I would have agreed with that statement,” Maia said lightly. “When you told me you wanted to break up with me because you didn’t think we worked together anymore, I didn’t think you were being cruel. In fact, I thought you were being kind. Instead, it turns out you were just being _selfish_ and, in a way, that’s the worst kind of cruelty, because you don’t even realise how much you’re hurting the other person. We broke up a week ago, Simon. Seven days, if even that.”

“So what, I was supposed to wait until you were feeling better to chase after the man I was falling in love with?” the brunet asked, frowning at Maia confusedly. “Our relationship was falling apart long before we actually decided to split up, Maia, you can’t blame me for finding someone else.”

“You’re right, I can’t,” she admitted, gritting her teeth when Jace smiled smugly. Someday, that man would get everything he deserved and more, and it would be a glorious day for all the people he had snobbed and treated as inferiors. “However, I can blame you for shoving it in my face. I can blame you for coming to the bar I work at, acting as though you two have been dating for months. I can blame you for going behind my back and not giving me even the hint of a warning so I could collect myself before you showed up.”

“We didn’t kn-”

“Yes, Jace, I got that!” Maia exclaimed, deciding that the other patrons would just have to deal with her anger and unpleasantness for this one night. “You didn’t know, you didn’t know, but I don’t fucking _care_. The Hunter’s Moon is my workplace, which should have been the first sign that going on a date here so soon after the break-up was a bad idea! And even if that wasn’t the case, you should have had the decency to apologise for springing this on me! And even then, you should have just left once you realised I didn’t want you here!”

This time, Simon was smart enough to wince and mouth an apology at her, although his quiet words were muffled by Jace’s interjection. Really, the blond needed to learn that there were times when shutting up was the best option.

“You don’t own the place, Maia,” he scoffed. “And you can’t just ask Simon to stop showing up here just because your feelings were hurt during the break-up. We’re not trying to be rude to you here, in fact I was hoping we could all still be friends, but I’m not going to let you talk to him like that.”

And Maia understood, she really did. Jace just wanted to defend his boyfriend and make sure he was being treated right by the people around him. He wanted to show Simon that he cared for him and would stand by him at all times. She got that, she really did, because she had been the same way when Simon and she had first started dating.

However, that didn’t make his words right, and it didn’t make them acceptable in Maia’s eyes. Jace had no right to treat her like an unruly child who couldn’t get her emotions under control. He had no right to tell her she was the one misbehaving, the one making a friendship impossible. He had no right, and Maia didn’t have to listen to him go on and on about her ‘attitude’, especially not when she was this sober.

She stormed away, throwing her towel onto the counter and telling her co-worker she was taking a break. She had a few drinks to down and two men to either ignore or spite. Or both.

* * *

Maia was drunk.

As a bartender who often had shots in between her shifts or when her friends dropped by, she wasn’t a lightweight. She was used to alcohol, and she was used to drinking it fast. However, even she wasn’t invulnerable to the disaster that five glasses of mostly-vodka wreaked upon one’s body.

She felt simultaneously heavy and light, like she could take off flying if she really wanted to but could just as easily bury herself into the ground and disappear forever. She had never been drunk enough to find out whether she was a happy one or a sad one, but apparently she was a bit of both, which suited her perfectly.

Her colleague, bless his soul, had taken over her duties effortlessly and hadn’t even blinked when she had asked for refill after refill. She would need to make sure she covered for him at some point, because not everyone would have done that for her. She even wrote herself a note to hand over her tips to him, because she wasn’t blind; she had seen the way he pointedly ignored Jace and Simon when they tried to call him over, saw the way he added just a little too much alcohol in Simon’s cocktails, enough to make them slightly too bitter for the vampire’s tastes.

After the break-up, she had felt like she didn’t have any friends, but she was starting to realise maybe she had just been looking in the wrong place all along. Everyone in this bar was on her side, and it was an intoxicating feeling. And that feeling was what she blamed her next actions on.

She had just finished her sixth glass of vodka-and-something, and the two werewolves next to her had just told her they fully supported her and couldn’t wait to see someone take him down a few pegs. Her bartender friend had agreed with them, and even the group of vampires behind them had told her that they would gladly rough up one of their own if it meant coming to such a beautiful woman’s rescue.

And as charming of an idea as that had been, Maia had never been much of a damsel in distress. She was the one who saved people, not the one who needed saving. So she grinned at the men around her, but smugly told them that she could handle herself. And then, in a fit of complete idiocy and misplaced bravery, she walked right back up to the two men she had been ignoring all night long.

The time for side-glances was over; Maia was ready to fling her anger into Jace and Simon’s faces. Well really just Jace’s, because Simon had at least seemed to regret his decision and had clearly wanted to apologise. And also because deep down, Maia still cared about him, whereas Jace had always been a bit of an asshole to her. A loveable asshole, most of the time, but an asshole nonetheless.

“Hello again, boys,” she smirked, pushing herself in between the two men and angling herself towards Jace. “Miss me?”

Jace rolled his eyes at her, although Simon must have been glancing at him somewhat significantly, because he bit his lip and didn’t say anything. Unsatisfied with that result, Maia turned towards Simon instead, smiling at him sweetly and trailing her finger down his chest. Strangely enough, she felt nothing at all.

Well, at least this evening would have achieved something, even if she didn’t get to bring out the big guns and get violent. Clearly, she didn’t really feel anything for Simon anymore. She had already known she wasn’t in love with him anymore, but she had been afraid that she might still have had some misplaced desire or lust hanging around her brain. Thankfully, the only thing she felt as she stared at Simon was regret and a little bit of anger.

Good.

“Oh come on, you decided to stay even after I blew up at you earlier, so you _must_ be looking for a fight, right?”

“Or maybe we just wanted a decent drink,” Jace growled. “Not that you helped with that, since you decided to join us on the other side of the counter. Too hung up on Simon to serve us a drink or two, Roberts?”

“Afraid I’d win if I showed him I was jealous, blondie?” Maia retorted, enjoying her renewed confidence. She had always been the strong and bold type, and she hadn’t liked the way her insecurities had crept up on her earlier. This was a lot better. “No, I just didn’t want to deal with all of your nonsense. You don’t exactly have the best reputation as a customer, Herondale, so I thought I’d stay away. Heart-breaking, right?”

And then, Jace did exactly what she had been hoping he would do. She wasn’t the type to start a fight, but she was definitely the type to finish one. Jace tried to shove her away from Simon, and Maia lost it. She wasn’t about to let the blond shadowhunter manhandle her whilst she was drunk just because he was pissed and annoyed and probably slightly jealous of Simon’s gorgeous ex.

She swirled around and punched him square in the jaw, adding a little boost of werewolf strength to her swing just to make sure it bruised beautifully the next day. She didn’t even grimace at the slight sting in her knuckles, knowing it had been completely worth it.

Behind her, the entire bar cheered, people egging her on and asking for a repeat. Unfortunately, Jace had wisely backed away, which meant hitting him again would be overkill. Instead of doing anything stupid, she turned around and bowed at the crowd, grinning wickedly when they all yelled her name over and over again.

She knew she acted pettily, knew Jace hadn’t really deserved to get punched – at least not for this specific offence – but she couldn’t find it in herself to regret any of it. A part of her had been dying to right-hook that man ever since he had first walked into the bar, and she had to admit it felt _great_ to finally tick off one of the items on her bucket list.

And even when she passed out half an hour later, draped over her co-worker and babbling about getting him good and showing everyone who the real boss was, she wouldn’t have taken any of it back.

She might be slightly frustrated at herself in the morning, but it would have been worth it. Especially since her colleague had promised to show her the video again the next day.

Maia had been _wonderful_ , and she wouldn’t let something as ridiculous as guilt get in the way of the heady feeling that had coursed through her veins when she had landed that punch.

**Author's Note:**

> Heya guys! Thank you so much for reading! Em wanted to see the scene mentioned in my Claia fic, in which Maia gets drunk and punches Jace in the face, so here it is! I feel like Maia deserved to have her angry moment, so this was wonderful to write, and I hope you all enjoyed it <3
> 
> Love, Junie. 
> 
> (find me on tumblr @hopesilverheart)


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